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> I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data This is so funny to me. Coming from a Netscape Navigator world, when exte
by xtracto 2mo ago
> I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data
This is so funny to me. Coming from a Netscape Navigator world, when extensions first came out, they were supposed to allow the user to add functionality to websites.
Why would someone install "random extensions" that they dont trust. And also, what would extensions do if not read and write data to websites? .
Sign of the times I guess.
- matheusmoreira 2mo ago> Why would someone install "random extensions" that they dont trust. Same reason why people download random stuff and run it with administrator permissions on Windows.
- latexr 2mo ago> Why would someone install "random extensions" that they dont trust. An extension that you trust today can be sold to an unscrupulous third-party tomorrow. That has happened many many times and will continue to.
- shaky-carrousel 2mo agoAnd sometimes the unscrupulous third party decides to build a browser and take over the market via forcing hardware vendors to bundle it with their OS. Like Google.
- feelamee 2mo agoso, it should not be updated automatically. so, you should not trust something that install updates (literally - install another software) without your agreement
- xtracto 2mo agoBack in the mid 90s when the web started to be all the rage, I remember reading a comment I thought hilarious and kind of right. Paraphrasing a lot it went like this: "Somehow, when people get into the internet, their IQ decreases like 50 points. Like, if a guy knocked on your house door and offered you to give you a million dollars if you just gave him a thousand now, you would tell him to F. off. But somehow on the internet people thing it's right" Same with these apps, someone comes and tells you to let him install this great water appliance for your backyard. You let him come in. But somehow in the internet, you also give him the key so that he can come in again anytime he wants... he may sell the key, lose the key, do something malicious later,etc. But due to ignorance, people dont grasp what they are doing in the digital world. People lack the necessary mental models.
- duskdozer 2mo agoExtensions are set to auto update by default, and it's not obvious at first how to disable that. It's also disallowed to install an extension you've built from source on most release builds, without messing with a hex editor. So essentially, any extension you install is liable to be come a "random" extension, if for example, the author sells out, or something like the attacks on NPM were to happen.